Typical seats for automobiles and other vehicles are formed on a metal frame to which padding is attached. The padding may typically be formed of a synthetic foam material that is covered with a natural or man made covering material. For example, the seat covering material may typically be leather, vinyl, or some type of cloth. The covering material may be applied to the seat by attaching the covering material over the foam padding either prior to or after attaching the padding to the seat frame or by stuffing the padding into the covering material before attaching the padding to the seat frame.
A very common problem associated with seats constructed in the manner just described is that, immediately after assembling the seat, the seat covering material is often wrinkled. This wrinkled appearance is very unacceptable to purchasers of the vehicles in which the seats are installed. Purchasers desire to see smooth wrinkle free seat surfaces.
It has been found that the wrinkles appearing in seat covering material may be removed by heating the seat covering material at a relatively high temperature for a short duration. If the right temperature and time of exposure is applied, heat can be used to remove wrinkles from the seat covering material without scorching or otherwise damaging the seat material. A typical device employed by manufacturers to apply such heat to a seat for removing wrinkles from the covering material thereof is a seat dewrinkling oven or, in short, a seat oven.
A conventional seat oven 10 is illustrated in, and will be described with reference to, FIG. 1. The conventional seat oven 10 typically is formed in an enclosure 12, which may, for example, include insulated walls 14 to keep the heat generated by the oven contained therein. At least one side 16, and preferably two opposed sides, of the oven 10 are open, or openable, to allow a seat 18 to be placed therein for dewrinkling. The oven 10 typically includes some kind of support structure 20 for supporting the seat 18 within the oven 10. The support structure 20 may, for example, be part of a conveyor system for both supporting the seat 18 within and transporting the seat 18 through the oven 10.
A typical seat 18 for an automobile or other vehicle has a generally vertically oriented rear surface 22 and a front surface 24. The front surface 24 of the seat 18 forms the part of the seat that is sat upon. The front surface 24 of the seat 18 thus comprises a generally vertically oriented back portion 26 and a generally horizontally oriented bottom portion 28. The junction point 30 between the back portion 26 and the bottom portion 28 of the front surface 24 of the seat 18 is commonly known as the seat bight.
A conventional seat oven 10 typically employs two heaters: a generally vertically oriented rear heater 32, for applying heat to the vertically oriented rear surface 22 of the seat 18, and a front heater 34. Both the rear 32 and the front 34 heaters typically may be formed of a plurality of generally horizontally and parallel arranged infrared heating elements 36 (e.g., rods or lamps) that generate short wave infrared radiation (e.g., generally in the wavelength range of 0.75–2 microns). The heating elements 36 may be mounted within parabolic or other reflectors 38 to enhance the heat radiation that is directed from the heaters 32 and 34 toward the seat 18.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the front heater 34 as employed in a conventional seat dewrinkling oven 10 presents a substantially planar heating surface that is typically positioned in front of and above the front surface 24 of the seat 18 to direct the infrared energy generated thereby down onto the front surface 24 of the seat 18. With this conventional type of heater 34, distances of the various parts of the front surface 24 of the seat 18 from the heating surface vary significantly. With this configuration, for example, the front heater 34 is positioned very close to a top of the back portion 26 of the front surface 24 and a front of the bottom portion 28 of the front surface 24 of the seat 18. The seat bight 30, in contrast, is positioned much further away from the front heater 34. Thus, using this conventional configuration, the heat applied to the front surface 24 of the seat is not even across the surface thereof. Sufficient heat intensity, and the duration of application thereof, must be applied by the front heater 34 to remove wrinkles from the seat 18 at and around the seat bight 30, which is far removed from the heater 34. However, in a conventional seat oven, such applied heat, and the duration of application thereof, needed to remove wrinkles from the seat 18 near the bight 30 may be more than is required to remove wrinkles from the portions of the front surface 24 of the seat 18 that are more closely positioned relative to the heater 34.
What is desired, therefore, is a method and apparatus for applying heat to the covering material of a seat for an automobile or other vehicle in a manner such that the heat is applied evenly over the surface of the seat thereby to remove wrinkles from the seat covering material in a time and energy efficient manner.